Hunting and Fishing News & Blog Articles

Wolves are the most controversial predator in America. (National Parks Service/)

I recall the first time I cut wolf tracks on a frozen river in the Canadian Rockies, following the lone animal on my cross-country skis for a full day, hoping for a glimpse. It was a heady experience for a 19-year-old raised on Jack London novels.

Now, 33 years later, there is no novelty in wolf tracks where I live in northwestern Montana. Wolves have gone from ghostlike rumors to commonplace. These days it’s rare to go out in a fresh snow and NOT see wolf tracks. The natural world has changed dramatically.

The political world changed along with it. Americans are polarized. Nowhere is this more evident than regarding wolves. My neighbors have license plates that read “WolfH8R” and bumper stickers urging folks to “Smoke a Pack A Day.”

Camps are staked out as pro-wolf or anti-wolf. But wildlife management happens in the real world. Even in a snowy forest, black and white fade to shades of grey.

After I wrote about wolves, one of my readers called wolves vermin that needed to be eliminated. “As a hunter,” another reader asked, “why would you even want them around?”

In addition to featuring exhibitors touting some of the world’s most coveted hunting and fishing opportunities, this year’s Safari Club International Convention, held in Reno, showcased work by renowned wildlife artists. Following are a dozen of the more striking exhibits.

1. On the Horn of a Dilemma

Kanati Elite Taxidermy, Myerstown, Pennsylvania

Kanati Elite Taxidermy, rhinoceros mount (Ralph P. Stuart/)

A white rhino bull lumbers along while being harassed by three hyenas. This piece combines the taxidermy of real animals (the hyenas) with a replica (the rhino). Kanati Elite Taxidermy has developed a proprietary process using synthetic composites to reproduce materials like skin and horns. On a “green hunt” for a rhino, the hunter darts the animal, takes photos and measurements, and turns over the material to Kanati to create a true-to-life reproduction.

2. White Wonder

A bipartisan deal would fully fund the LWCF and provide more than $1 billion per year for clearing the maintenance backlogs in our national parks. (NPS.Gov/)

President Trump has evidently undergone an election-year conversion on the topic of the Land & Water Conservation Fund, pumping new energy into the campaign for full and permanent funding of this critically important access and habitat conservation tool.

This week, Trump used his favorite platform – Twitter – to express his enthusiasm for LWCF. He wrote: “I am calling on Congress to send me a Bill that will fully and permanently fund the LWCF and restores our National Parks. When I sign it into law, it will be HISTORIC for our beautiful public lands.”

He goes on to thank Sens. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., whom he called “GREAT Conservative Leaders.”

In this highly partisan era, LWCF is one of the relatively few government programs that consistently receives support on both sides of the aisle. Even so, it has critics among those who frown upon the idea of government owning land in the first place. Full funding for the LWCF has received pushback because some lawmakers argue the massive $12 billion backlog in national parks maintenance needed to be addressed first.

It seems President Trump and the Senate are ready to tackle both issues with one deal. Yesterday, Senate leaders announced a bipartisan deal that would spend about $2.2 billion per year on conservation and outdoor projects and national park maintenance across the country, according to the New York Times.

Having patience and dialing back on calling can kill toms in the rain. (Jace Bauserman/)

The rain was falling sideways and the tin roof of the cabin was rattling. Thunder clapped and lightning flashed—for once, the weather man was right. Damn him. I was pissed. My bunk mate, three-time NWTF Grand National Turkey Calling Champion Billy Yargus, must have sensed my tension.

“Don’t worry,” I heard him whisper from under his bed sheets. “We’re still gonna kill them in the morning. It’s gonna be nasty, but we are going, and we will have the woods to ourselves.”

The rain was falling in sheets when we arrived at the field, but the lighting had stopped. Thank God. I snagged a Primos Double Bull blind and started the march across the muddy beans.

“Wouldn’t want to hunt in this without a blind,” Billy said as we erected our ground fort under the cover of darkness. We were cold, wet, and our boots were caked with pounds of black Missouri mud. The turkeys didn’t gobble, which was expected, but an hour after first light a lone tom appeared across the field. I had one of the best callers in the world sitting next to me, and in minutes, the bird was flopping in our decoy spread.

We stayed put in the blind for a few more hours. The rain was relentless, and the wind reached hurricane speeds a time or two. More than once, Billy and I had to hold the blind down to prevent it from taking flight. Still, every 15 or 20 minutes, Billy would call.

These common-sense steps will help you prepare for the outbreak. (Dr. Fred Murphy, Centers for Disease Control/)

Fear activates people. It sells surgical masks and medical gloves. It sells bleach and disinfecting spray. But even more than than selling products, fear drives people to obsessively gobble up social media posts and scroll through traditional media reports. But instead of panicking at the prime time reports, let’s cut through the B.S. and make emergency preparedness a real priority before the coronavirus spreads throughout the country. Here’s how.

What is the Coronavirus?

What is this alarming aliment and where did it come from? Last year, a new virus was discovered in humans and initially named “SARS-CoV-2.” A close relative of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), the disease was renamed “coronavirus disease 2019” (which is shortened to “COVID-19”). First detected in Wuhan, China, the disease is now confirmed in some 60 locations internationally, including in the United States. Coronaviruses are nothing new (and that’s why they’re listed on your Lysol can). This huge family of viral organisms is found in people and plenty of “Old World” animals (like bats, camels, cattle, and cats). Initially, the outbreak epicenter involved people who had ties to a major seafood and live animal market in Wuhan, but soon, the disease seemed to spread person-to-person. On January 30, 2020, an emergency committee of the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern.” Symptoms of COVID-19 infection range from those of a mild respiratory cold, to major flu-like symptoms that require hospitalization.

What Makes a Pandemic So Dangerous?

The two main things that make a pandemic dangerous are communicability and lethality. The definition of a pandemic is an infectious disease that had spread around the globe, and it will only do this when the organism is easy to spread (highly communicable). Diseases that are strictly blood borne are not likely to jump out of a carrier and all over the other passengers at the international airport, for example. Yet something that’s easily spread in the air (by droplets from coughing and sneezing, breath/body fluids, or other close contact), can spread across the globe in a few days (due to the speed of modern international travel). If the wide-spreading ailment is just a common cold, it doesn’t matter too much. But when it is an illness with a higher than normal mortality rate—that’s when things get ugly. So far, COVID-19 isn’t proving to be as fatal as our fears might imagine—but it is very catchy. Some reports are suggesting that people are “reacquiring” the illness, effectively catching the same virus twice.

You may have watched every survival video on YouTube (twice), but there’s a big difference between watching someone perform a complex skill and performing it yourself. The best way to learn is under the careful eye of a seasoned survival instructor. I’ve been a survival instructor for more than 20 years, and can tell you it shortens the learning curve. This is a list of the 10 best survival schools in the lower 48 states for outdoorsmen to hone their skills and take their knowledge of the wilderness to the next level.

1. Mountain Shepherd Adventure School

Mountain Shepherd provides empowerment, education, leadership, and survival training. (Mountain Shepherd/)

For women and young girls looking to avoid the macho nonsense that can accompany survival training, take heed. Mountain Shepherd Adventure School provides top-notch wilderness survival, first-aid, and bushcraft training in one of the most beautiful settings in Virginia. They also have an amazing infrastructure in place. There’s not only a huge lodge, and a cabin with rooms you can book for your stay during classes, they’ve got a pub onsite (for those of age). And even though the amenities are remarkable, it doesn’t take away from the training. School owner Dina Imbriani, along with a large staff of skilled women and men, bring their love of the outdoors into every class. From women-only classes to adventurous wilderness survival outings, the team at Mountain Shepherd will guide you as you grow, developing skills and gaining a new understanding of the wilderness. And if you have a young outdoorswoman in the family, Mountain Shepherd has a girl’s camp each summer.

2. Byron Kerns Survival

During his admirable military career, owner and operator Byron Kerns was a U.S. Air Force SERE instructor. Teaching civilians since 1996 and operating as Byron Kerns Survival since 2008, Byron is based in Georgia and occasionally teaches in Florida. His classes include: wilderness survival, instructor training courses, minimalist survival, escape and evasion, as well as parent and child classes. He is always glad to share his wisdom with anyone who shares his passion for survival skills. Over the years, he has worked with the public in many capacities and has even provided training for the next generation of American survival instructors (some of his students have founded their own schools).

If you want to protect your dog from fleas and ticks, but don’t want to use harsh treatments, know that there are all-natural alternatives. (Helena Lopes/)

Many chemical-based dog products available today ward off ticks and fleas. They’re effective, and many dog owners use them without incident. But not all dogs, or dog owners, are the same. Some dogs have skin reactions to the chemicals. Some dog owners are concerned about the long-term effects of their use, or simply don’t want to use anything on their dog that they wouldn’t use on themselves. Or some owners just don’t want to have a dog with chemicals on it hanging around the house.

Fortunately, there are numerous products that will keep ticks and fleas off of your dog. Many dog owners will use a combination of these and make them part of daily, dog-care regimen. Here are a few choices.

A Fine-toothed Brush

A de-shedding tool has closely spaced teeth that catch crawling ticks and reveal fleas. (PetNeat/)

It’s always a good practice to brush your dog regularly to remove loose hairs and keep its coat looking good. A fine-tooted wire brush, with its narrow, closely spaced teeth, will not only remove loose follicles, it also will catch any ticks that aren’t embedded and reveal any fleas in the fur. This is an important first step in controlling ticks and fleas naturally, and one you should practice regularly.

Tick Removal Tool

The lever-action takes a back seat to modern, extreme range, precision rifles, but it’s still one of the coolest, most effective whitetail hunting rifles in the woods. (Ron Spomer/)

Most hunters inherit or buy a rifle and learn to love it. A few are dissatisfied and search and search for the perfect model. A few churn through gun after gun, enjoying each for what it does well, but always trade up or try something new. This constant searching and cycling reveals what most of us might consider some “cool” guns—actions, sizes, calibers, and qualities that somehow combine to heighten the cool factor. Cool, however, is in the eye of the beholder. Below are some of the most awesome rifles I’ve been fortunate to shoot and hunt with. See if you agree or if you’ve shot some that are even cooler. If you have, tells us about them in the comments section.

1. Winchester M94 .30-30

Two classics born for one another. The Winchester M94 lever-action and .30-30 Winchester cartridge. Now 125 years old and still going strong. (Ron Spomer/)

The coolest rifle I ever shot was a Winchester Model 94 lever-action in .30-30 Winchester with open sights—just as it came off the manufacturer’s floor. It was 1968. I was barely old enough to legally hunt deer, but barely is good enough when you’ve been champing at the bit for four years.

“This is what you should get,” the dealer said as he handed over a Model 70 bolt-action. It looked klutzy and un-cool compared to that lever-action cowboy gun I wanted to buy. All the TV heroes shot lever-actions—Clint Eastwood, John Wayne. Besides, I’d trained on a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun.

Classically cool. The famous lever-action brush rifle in .30-30. Still-hunter’s dream date. (Ron Spomer/)

“Let me see that lever-action in a thirty thirty,” I said, pointing behind him at his basement wall lined with rifles. Back in those days virtually anyone could buy and sell guns out of their house if they wanted. And we drove to school with them in our pickups, most of them hanging in a rack against the rear window for everyone to see, the pickups unlocked. This had been going on since pickups were invented. No one had ever stolen a gun one or used it to harass, threaten, or kill anyone in the 85-year history of our town.

Evolution is a slow process. We tend to believe that the trout swimming in our rivers now are smarter than the ones that were swimming there 25 or even 100 years ago, but the truth is they’ll eat the same flies they did back then. Thanks to modern synthetic materials and flashy new patterns, a lot of the old stuff has lost its rightful place in fly boxes. But sometimes those forgotten gems save the day, or crush more fish than the latest and greatest bug. So, this winter, when you’ve topped off your scotch after shoveling snow and you sit down at the vise, consider spinning up these five old-school killers. You’ll be happy you did come spring.

These “old dog” trout flies don’t need new tricks to crush big fish. (Cliff Gardiner & John Keller/)

1. Whitlock’s Near Nuff Sculpin

Legend has it that Dave Whitlock once told Lefty Kreh, “You can use this fly, but you can never write about it.” Fortunately, the secret is long out, so I’m safe giving it some ink. Large streamers delivered on sinking lines are all the rage these days, and some in the meat-stripping crowd may find it hard to believe that sometimes smaller is much more potent. The Near Nuff doesn’t have a lot of body, and it’s weighted with small lead eyes, so it gets down fast with little resistance. Whether you’re on a big Western river or meandering spring creek, if fishing gets slow, give this morsel a dredge. No, you don’t need a sinking line, and yes, it will cast just fine on your 5-weight.

2. Goddard Caddis

John Goddard and Clive Henry developed the G&H Sedge pattern in England in the early 1960s. Here in the States, we simply call it the Goddard Caddis. And in its heyday, many even referred to it as the “Godlike Caddis.” There was a good reason for that. You can tie or buy the Goddard in a wide range of sizes, and it’ll match everything from small terrestrials to caddisflies to midsize golden stoneflies. One of my favorite attributes of this pattern is that its spun-deer-hair body makes it float like a cork. You can drift smaller Goddards in heavy chop without them sinking, and you can even use them as the indicator in a dry-dropper rig. Tied in all black, they are absolutely deadly.

Don’t give up on silent gobblers. (USFWS/)

If there is something in hunting that compares to spring turkey gobbles ringing through the hardwoods at sunrise, I haven’t found it. No matter how many mornings I spend with my back against a tree, there’s always that anticipation of hearing the first tom sound off—it gets my heart racing uncontrollably. But no matter how vocal, there are many times when longbeards go silent after a morning display.

Every seasoned turkey hunter has had it happen. A turkey gobbles on the limb, answering every scratch form the slate call. He’s hooked! Or so you thought. The tom lets out a thundering rattle and you hear his wings beating down through the canopy to the forest floor. You reposition your shotgun and wait…and wait. And you never hear another peep. Now what? Call it a day? If you’re like me—unless your wife is in labor or you’re out of vacation days AND sick time—you’re not leaving the woods until shooting time is up. So when gobblers turn into ghosts, here is what you should do.

1. Toms Can’t Tell Time

The biggest mistake a hunter can make is to hunt turkeys like they are on a schedule. One of the most successful guys I know often reminds folks he hunts with the mentality that he has “never seen an ol’ gobbler wearing a wrist watch.” There are definitely times to get aggressive and go after a bird, but I view turkey hunting like a game of blackjack. If I’m sitting on 16, I’m going to hang back and bank on the dealer busting. So, don’t get in a rush to chase a silent tom. Give that bird time to make the first mistake (which will be his last) by coming to you, especially if you are in an area where toms have been trafficking.

2. Every Property Has Strut Zones

A new Backcountry Conservation Area is being proposed near Lewistown, Montana. (Charlie Bulla, via TRCP/)

Over the past month, Outdoor Life’s hunting editor Andrew McKean has had two opportunities to interview Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt. The first interview was a wide-ranging conversation about topics as varied as CWD funding, actions that federal agencies are taking to prepare public lands for climate change, and the status of acting BLM director William Perry Pendley.

The second interview detailed a new BLM designation called Backcountry Conservation Areas that aim to perpetuate sportsmen’s access to public lands but to give managers tools to improve wildlife habitat and improve public recreational opportunities. These BCAs got their first showing earlier this month in the BLM’s proposed Resource Management Plans for the Lewistown and Missoula areas in Montana as well as the Four Rivers Field Office in southwest Idaho.

The new land designation is intended to “promote public access to support wildlife-dependent recreation and hunting opportunities and facilitate the long-term maintenance of big-game wildlife populations,” said the BLM in a statement. Bernhardt told McKean the new designation is designed to “perpetuate traditional access and to take care of our best big-game habitat, using migration mapping and other information to improve the habitat even more. Other uses, like oil and gas development or mining, are still allowed but they’re secondary to those two things. We think it’s an important way to recognize the value of some of these lands to wildlife.”

The BCAs will curtail some uses, including minimizing surface occupancy of critical lands and regulating viewsheds, but lands in BCAs will generally be open to traditional multiple uses, including motorized travel and the use of mechanized equipment for habitat improvement projects. Backcountry Conservation Areas are planned as land-use designations in other resource management plans scheduled to be released later this year and into 2021.

Later, Bernhardt sat down for a wide-ranging interview. Here are some sound bites from that discussion, plus a lightly edited transcript of the full interview.

Nate Olsen with the potential new Wisconsin state record non-typical whitetail. (Nate Olsen/)

“I think that’s the biggest f—king deer I’ve ever seen in my life,” is the first thing Nate Olsen’s buddy blurted out. Crass, maybe, but he had to say something because Olsen, a 33-year-old Wisconsin deer hunter, had lost the ability to speak. He could only point to a pair of massive deer deadheads (antlers still attached to the skulls), one of which was indeed the biggest he had ever laid eyes on. In fact, one of the bucks may very well be the biggest non-typical in Wisconsin history. During the rut, the bucks’ racks had become entangled in a fight and they died. Olsen and his friend found the two deer in Rock County while shed hunting.

“The Wisconsin (Department of Natural Resources) did a health test and both bucks were CWD- and EHD-free,” Olsen said. “The DNR estimated the death around Nov. 15, 2019, and I found the buck Feb. 1, 2020. The big deer was either 4 or 5 years old.”

Wisconsin’s firearm record for a non-typical whitetail was set in 1973 by retired game warden Elmer Gotz. He shot the 30-point, 253 0/8-inch (scored by the state’s Buck and Bear Club) buck in Buffalo County on a deer drive with a Browning 12-gauge. Interestingly, Gotz’s buck was initially scored 245 0/8 inches by the Boone and Crockett Club, because Gotz actually shot off one of the deer’s browtines during the hunt. B&C later acknowledged the original score because someone went back and found the broken tine.

Olsen measured the deer at 253 ¾ inches. (Nate Olsen/)

Olsen did his own measurement on the rack he found, and it came to 253¾ inches, which would just beat out Gotz’s deer. The official scoring will take place April 3-5 in Madison, Wisconsin, at the Outdoor Life/Field & Stream EXPO. So if you want to see this rack for yourself, this is your chance.

The second buck that was entangled with the potential state-record buck scored in the 160s. Olsen is taking both deer to Mersberger’s Rut, Strut, and Stream Taxidermy with plans for full shoulder mounts. He wants the bucks to be mounted as he found them. In order to officially score the bigger deer, the 160 will need to be removed. No one has been able to untangle the racks, so the smaller rack will be sawed off and then pieced back together before it goes on the wall.

Here stands the old warrior with its two newest competitors in the rather small .27-caliber world. Both new rounds exceed the ballistics of the old one, but do it in different ways. The .277 Fury works with much higher chamber pressures to get high velocity. The .27 Nosler works with a larger powder reservoir. (Ron Spomer/)

After years of the 6.5mm craze, we may be about to witness the .270 rising.

Stated another way, it’s the .270’s turn. And we don’t mean the old .270 Winchester.

.270 Winchester Is Still the Popularity Champ

Winchester’s original .270 of 1925 is still embraced as a mild-shooting, flat-shooting, open-country deer cartridge. And it has worked just find on elk, moose, even big brown bears, though most think it waaay too light for that. Old Elmer Keith back in the dark ages of the mid-20th century claimed the .270 Winchester was an adequate coyote round.

While Elmer had his fans agreeing, the thorn in Elmer’s side, Jack O’Connor, had his readers lapping up the .270 Winchester. Historians of guns and ammo credit O’Connor’s writings for popularizing the little .270, which was and still is a bit of an oddball caliber. When Winchester came out with this modification of the .30-06 these was no other 27-caliber cartridge in the world. And there haven’t been a heck of a lot since. Weatherby came out with his .270 magnum fairly soon (about 20 years) after the .270 Winchester took off, but the next .277 shooter didn’t pop until 2001 as the .270 Winchester Short Magnum. It nearly matched ballistics of the Weatherby Magnum. Finally, the puny 6.8 SPC from Remington appeared about 2004.

Your trusty pocket knife can do a lot more than open Amazon packages. Knives are an indispensable part of any outdoor survival kit. When used to their full potential, knives can perform some amazing tasks. In terms of surviving the wild, simple wood carving may seem like busy work, frivolous, or even worthless. However, that shaggy “fuzz stick” isn’t going to seem so silly when every piece of wood is soaked on the outside and you need the warmth of a fire to keep you from hypothermia. Wood carving isn’t just for old men in porch rockers. It’s one of the skills you’ll need to stay alive in the wilderness.

Safety First

You can’t afford to add a deep laceration to your list of troubles in a survival situation. (Tim MacWelch/)

You should have a firm foundation in proper knife use and safety. Following these rules will ensure there are no accidents when you are far away from medical help.

Make sure every cut is away from you and others.Keep folding knives closed or sheath knives when not in use.When carving from a seated position, keep your elbows on your knees. If you slip while your elbows are on your thighs or at your hips, you’re more likely to slice into your leg.Don’t rush the work. Being in a hurry or “hacking” at the wood is a recipe for injury. Each cut should be slow and controlled.Keep others out of your “blood circle.” This is the imaginary bubble around you which can be reached with the knife edge. Stop carving if someone enters your “circle”.Keep your knife edge sharp. Dull knives require more pressure to make cuts and can cause you to slip.When handing a knife to others, the best practice is to close folding knives and put fixed-blade knives back in their sheath before making the transfer.

Fuzz Stick

Fuzz sticks are great assets for wet weather fire building. (Tim MacWelch/)

You’ll have the hardest time building a fire when all your fuel is soaked, but it’s usually just wet on the outside. Carve into a wet stick and you can often expose dry wood. Start by finding the driest sticks you can , usually on standing dead trees and shrubs. If the bark can be easily peeled or carved away, take it off. Most tree species have bark that burns poorly (especially when wet). Carefully start carving away from yourself and away from your body, making shavings that stay attached to the stick. Initially, your first shavings will be short, but as your skills increase, so will the length of your shavings. This is a good thing, as longer shavings burn better than short ones due to increased surface area. Start by carving a shaving near the end of a stick and work your way around the stick and backwards. Your shavings can be in orderly rows or in a spiraling pattern. Either way, the goal is to create a fuzz stick. For added flammability, you could add a secondary fuel. This could be a smear of wax or pine sap, or a dribble of oil or other flammable liquids (but nothing explosive, like gasoline). With the added fuel, and multiple fuzz sticks, you should be ready to light a fire in almost any weather.

Wyoming lawmakers are considering the purchase of 1 million acres to expand public hunting access. (USFWS/)

Wyoming is known as an outdoor paradise because it has plenty of public land to roam. Lawmakers there are looking to continue that trend with the potential purchase of 1 million acres in the southern part of the state. Meanwhile, just north in Montana, sportsmen and women are alarmed as 600,000 acres of privately-owned land that has historically been open for hunting and fishing is about to change hands.

Both of these issues have a history. Back in the 1860s, President Abraham Lincoln and other lawmakers allocated land to subsidize railroads so that tracks could be laid across the American West. These railroad grants still remain today, though they have changed hands often over time.

The state of Wyoming is considering buying 1 million acres of land—half the size of Yellowstone National Park—and 4 million acres of mineral and energy rights along the I-80 corridor, currently owned by Occidental Petroleum. The land is commonly called the Union Pacific checkerboard because of its history tied to the railroad.

Gov. Mark Gordon and legislators announced they are moving ahead with plans to purchase the lands to improve public access and generate revenue. The deal would require legislative action, perhaps even a special session.

“Things are still playing out and there are a lot of unknowns out there,” said Nick Dobric, Wyoming Field Representative for Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.

If your gun dog has drive, it’s more likely to become an accomplished shed hunter. (Tony J. Peterson/)

The popularity of shed antler dogs has gone from zero to ludicrous in the last decade. But if you go by the success of a social media shed hunt, you’ll probably leave the woods sorely disappointed. Shed dogs are growing in popularity. And all those piles of antlers on Instagram may make the dog-less shed junkie cast a curious eye at his or her retriever. Or maybe do a quick recon on Google, searching to see what the story is on available litters of hard-driving shed retrievers. It’s understandable, and there are certainly benefits to owning a shed dog. But it’s a good idea to understand what all the buzz is glossing over. Whether you’re looking to teach an old dog new antler tricks, or pick up a pup that will be dedicated to the task, understand what you’re getting into and the outcomes are likely to be.

1. Any Sporting Dog Can Be A Shed Dog

This is a tricky one. According to Josh Miller, a seriously accomplished dog trainer and owner of River Stone Kennels, “People just get too optimistic about their dog’s ability. Sure, theoretically any dog can pick up an antler and bring it back to you, but that’s not how it works in the real world.” Miller’s words might sting a little, but they are also true. If you have a high-drive dog that has plenty of natural hold and carry ability, and you want him to bring you sheds, then you’re (probably) well on your way. A dog that is average in drive or retrieving desire might be a different story. It also goes a step further with individual personalities. Some dogs just seem to hate holding antlers in their mouths, in the same manner as others that shun woodcock or certain kinds of ducks for reasons known only to them.

Training a hunting dog to find antlers will not take away anything from the pursuit of upland or waterfowl. (Tony J. Peterson/)

2. Training A Shed Dog Is Simple

The easy part is getting ahold of a couple antlers and some deer scent and then essentially having the option to train in any environment (backyards and living rooms included). The goal, as dog trainer and owner of Dog Bone Hunter Jeremy Moore puts it, is to get a dog to associate the scent of sheds with a connection to a reward. “An antler has plenty of scent, but what a dog doesn’t know is how to connect that scent to a behavior like retrieving. That’s where proper training comes in through a soft introduction, and then gradually builds to positive nose work games.” This, Moore went on to explain, isn’t as easy as getting a dog to react to fresh bird scent, or something else they are genetically predisposed to hunting. But it can be accomplished through the proper program with enough time.

Successful caribou hunters return from the uplands to their guide’s boat. (Luke Renard/)

The musk ox looks like he might have been chiseled out of the veined rock of this fjord. The only movement is his coat, a tangle of tawny dreadlocks that ripples and waves in the stiff wind. Then his head slowly pans, following the passage of our little boat through the electric-blue water.

We’ve apparently gotten too close for his comfort, because as we motor within rifle range of the bull, he breaks his gaze and trots parallel to the shore, a goofy hoof-flailing canter as he gathers the cows around him in a defensive circle. They all stand, rumps together and a dozen shaggy heads forming a perimeter of hooking horns and watchful bovine eyes.

Frank Feldmann cuts the boat’s throttle and peers through his binocular.

“He’s a young bull,” Feldmann says. His Scandinavian accent sharpens the first word into “Heeze.”

“You see how his boss is a little weak and his horns don’t drop down. We can do better.”

A new technology allows for faster identification of CWD. (USFWS/)

Time is the single most important factor to mitigating the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer herds. The current testing process can take weeks, which could allow for the disease to spread as wildlife managers and hunters await results. But a new, faster process is being developed, and it could be the answer to better management of CWD outbreaks and a boon for the scent companies that have seen their products outlawed or restricted in at least a dozen states due to fears that it could spread the disease.

Real Time Quaking Induced Conversion (RT-QuIC), which began development in 2011 to detect the fatal human brain disorder Creutzfeldt-Jakob, can determine if CWD is present in a myriad of ways, delivering results within hours. Deer urine, saliva, and excrement are some of the elements that can be tested for the misfolded proteins (or prions) that cause this fatal ailment. Most importantly, the test can be conducted on live deer, other testing methods can only be run on dead deer.

“I think each state needs to support this kind of funding,” said Dr. Peter Larsen, who co-leads a team at the University of Minnesota that is working on the advancement of RT-QuIC. “It’s the only way we are going to get ahead of this disease.”

Larsen’s team partnered with Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the board of health, running tests for CWD on both live and dead deer. Older CWD testing methods required post-mortem deer samples to be sent to a lab. The team also found the process to be more accurate at determining if a deer was in the early stages of CWD infection.

“This method is more sensitive,” Larsen said. “Earlier ways of testing had a failure rate. So if a deer was just infected, say for two or three months, the test would not detect it.”

The author on a solo Dall Sheep hunt in Alaska. There's no great film from this hunt, just good memories. (Tyler Freel/)

Most of us get a kick out of reading, hearing, or watching accounts of other hunters’ experiences and stories. Hunting media is entertaining, but the source of that entertainment is a connection to the things that stir our own hearts. We get to share our experiences with a virtual stranger, but also reflect on our own time in the woods. But media can also easily side-track us from what we’re really out there to do.

Go to a concert these days and you’ll see people holding up their phones, recording each song. Sure, those folks can later watch the performance at their leisure, but looking back on the show, in that moment they were just staring at a live concert through a screen. Similarly, as a content producer, I often find there is a very fine line between hunting and capturing the entirety of the experience. I am out there in pursuit of wild game, but also trying to catalog it for consumption. It’s challenging at times, especially when you shoot an animal. It can be hard to appreciate the moment fully, because you’re also working.

I love consuming all hunting content, and I think that everyone has a story to tell and experiences to share. Sharing our hunting experiences in a positive, but real and genuine way, benefits the sport, and I don’t want to discourage anyone who wants to share their experiences and story. However, don’t forget what brings you out there in the first place.

From the consumer standpoint, creativity and production quality of hunting “films” is at an all-time high. The equipment, cinematography, and time put in are more on-par with Hollywood movies than the stale outdoor TV shows many of us have drifted away from. The entertainment and captivation power of many of these films are incredible. But often, I have my doubts about how much of the real experience is being captured. I’ve spent enough time on Alaska reality TV show sets (believe it or not I made an appperance on a reality show here in Alaska back in the day) to have a feel for what has to go on behind the scenes to provide that kind of cinematic experience. Most of the time, effort, and in-person experience is weighted much more heavily towards the movie making than the actual hunting.

With hunts that are in your wheelhouse, you can probably pick up on things that don’t seem quite right. You’ll notice things that stick out as obviously manufactured situations and not the actual experience. One of my biggest complaints with outdoor TV over the years has been the silly re-creates. Once you understand that much of the experience is manufactured, it really kills the feeling. And in some ways, top-end production just gives you a more palatable version of that.

Critical survival gear all ready for action. (Jeff Wilson/)

“Don’t run to your death” is a well-known Navy SEAL saying that was meant for the battlefield, but it works pretty well in the backcountry too. The idea here, of course, is that taking things slowly and methodically will keep you out of trouble—and keep you alive.

It’s true: Most bad situations in the wilderness can be resolved with no tool other than common sense.

But some dangers can’t be avoided, no matter how much logic and caution we apply. Bears charge. Mountain storms brew in an instant. Hunting buddies get turned around. Accidents happen.

And when they do, this is the gear that you’re going to want stashed in your backpack, buckled to your hip, or strapped to your chest.

Bushcraft Knives